House Dechants
The Dechants' are a noble and wealthy family of Pure-blood wizards and witches. Their primary seat of power is the Dechants Manor in Oxfordshire, England but there is also a sizable branch of the family in France where their house has its birthplace. They share blood ties with many other Pure-blood families both extant and extinct, including the Mordushkus, the Phoenixes and the Crawfords. Historically, the Dechants' have been known as a martial and revolutionary house, earning their name during the 100 years war of 1337 to 1453 and playing a part in nearly every major conflict in western Europe since up until the signing of the statute of secrecy in 1692. They also fought in the Global Wizarding War & the first and second Wizarding Wars, though they found themselves on the losing side in all three. History Origins The House of Dechants came to be when their great ancestor, Aurelius Abel Dechants I, a brilliant young wizard in the service of the constable of France Charles I of Albret made a secret covenant with his master's enemy, King Henry V of England before the battle of Agincourt in 1415. Accounts of the nature of Aurelius' treachery varied, with some suggesting that he used the Imperius curse on the French commanders to make them charge the English position while the battlefield was still covered in mud, some claiming that he muddied the field himself with a powerful water-making charm and others still claiming that he personally murdered the constable with the killing curse and sowed chaos in his ranks when Charles I sought to lead his infantry against the English line. While his methods may be uncertain, the results were not. The English won a decisive victory against an army estimated to be more than four times their size at the largest and at least double at the smallest and Aurelius was awarded a Lordship in Oxfordshire and all the titles that came with it as a reward for his betrayal. The Burning of Amatia Noble status and subtlety kept the Dechants' safe in a world that was growing more and more hostile towards wizardkind for nearly 200 years, but in 1586 the innocent young daughter of Lord Drusus and Lady Considia Dechants, Amatia, snuck out of the family manor without an escort, wanting to explore the village around it for herself. She had only been outside for a couple of minutes before she was recognized and a mob of peasants formed around her, hounding the timid little girl with questions for which she had no answers and blocking off her escape. When one of them reached out to touch her, it became too much for the shaking child to handle and she pushed all those around her backwards with force in a bout of accidental magic. The enraged and fearful villagers cried Witch and fell upon her, dragging the screaming and crying 10 year old to the church where they cobbled together a pyre and burned her to death in spite of the protests of the local priest. It is said that when Lord Drusus and Lady Considia learned of their daughter's fate hours later, Drusus ceased to be a man and instead became a raging beast, screaming with primal rage as he cast all his muggle servants out of the manor and sent them to the village, and yet it was Lady Considia whom the magical beings in the manor would remember the most fearfully; They claimed she did not cry, nor make any sound at all as the news of her child's horrible death settled in and cast its heavy shadow over her soul, but there was an otherworldly hatred in her eyes, one that seemed to promise pain the likes of which no human could ever imagine, a pure agony that would swallow the world and spit out nothing more than a fine powder of ash and crushed bone. Lord and Lady Dechants let the tense villagers stew for the rest of the day as they planned their horrible vengeance. That evening Drusus and Considia strode into the village hand in hand wearing traditional wizard garb. As the confused and frightened villagers emerged from their homes to see what was going on, the pair drew their wands and formed a great wall of fire around the village, blocking off any escape. Confusion soon turned to screaming and terror as Drusus let go of his wife's hand and charged into the village, sending jets of green light flying in every direction and scattering corpses around the streets as Considia purposefully marched to the home of the leader of the mob. When dawn finally broke on that night of horrors, all that was left of the muggle village was a burning heap of corpses and the screams of the family Considia had tortured which still seemed to linger in the air hours after they had finally been allowed to die. As the fires burned out, Drusus and Considia gathered their daughter's remains and buried her behind the manor's walls, swearing that the muggles would never come near her again. To ensure this, they cast a muggle-repelling charm on the manor and its surroundings, including the burned village beneath it. On that day, the Dechants family seemed to vanish without a trace from the muggle world along with all the riches of the lands they had held in the name of Queen Elizabeth I. The burning of Amatia marked the end of the Dechants family's peaceful co-existance with the muggle world and the start of an intense hatred of all things muggle that has lasted into present times. After the burning, all Dechants involvement with muggles was simple and shameless profiteering, the only exceptions being the muggles that would occasionally go missing whilst wandering around the woods near the hidden manor. The Statute of Secrecy & Rebellion In 1692, Camillus Marcel Dechants led a short-lived rebellion against the Wizard's Council following the signing of the statute of secrecy. Camillus resented the idea that wizardkind should have to hide themselves from muggles and named all who had supported the bill to be cowards and traitors to all wizardkind. Camillus and his followers launched a series of ruthless attacks on officials who had supported the bill over the course of 4 months, killing 2 and injuring 7. When Camillus and his followers were finally identified, Camillus and his men chose to stand their ground and fight rather than letting themselves be arrested, resulting in the deaths of all 12 rebels and 9 of the council's task force. Following Camillus' death, the family made a show of publicly burning his face from their family tapestry to denounce him and pledge their full support for the bill to avoid further punishment, though it is rumored that Camillus' name is still honored on the true tapestry in the family manor. The Global Wizarding War During the Global Wizarding War, the then patriarch of the family, Gallio Abelin Dechants threw his lot in with Gellert Grindelwald, attracted by his vision of a world ruled by wizardkind. Gallio supported Grindelwald's cause financially and may have been an observer at some of the major events of the conflict, but he took great care to cover his tracks and to keep his involvement secret; He did such a good job of this that his role in the war wasn't revealed to the wizarding world before 1973, nearly 25 years after his death of natural causes and at a time where the wizarding world was too occupied with the first wizarding war to even care. The First Wizarding War For Consus Amand Dechants III, eldest son of Gallio, the rise of Voldemort was a call to arms for which he had waited his whole life. To Consus' mind, Voldemort was the man Grindelwald should have been. One with a similar goal, but an understanding of where the true power of the wizarding world was meant to lie; With the ancient and noble Pure-blood families such as his own. Consus and his son Decius would be among the first to join the Dark Lord, becoming loyal and fanatical Death Eaters. Consus made all of his family's resources available to the Dark Lord, including his own blood. The Dechants' would give Voldemort what they had withheld from Grindelwald; Their wands. Active participation in the fighting. Consus, although old and frail, personally killed at least 3 people in Voldemort's service, while his son and extended family did untold amounts of extra damage. Consus himself would pass away from natural causes at the height of Voldemort's power, mere weeks before his shocking defeat at the hands of the infant Harry Potter, confident that he was leaving a world that was soon to be owned by the Pure-blooded. His son Decius took up leadership after him and stood trial before a full Wizengamot after their Lord's defeat. He and his family were among the Pure-bloods who escaped conviction by claiming they had been under the influence of the Imperius Curse. The Second Wizarding War Voldemort's return came as a welcome surprise to Decius, who was among the Death Eaters who answered his master's summons to the graveyard in Little Hangleton. Decius gladly rushed back into his master's service along with his own children, Servius, Octavia and, some suspect, his youngest son Consus IV who was still a 6th year student at Hogwarts. The Dechants' fought long and hard for Voldemort's cause, though just as it had been with the first wizarding war, just as it seemed to be won, all was suddenly lost. The battle of Hogwarts dealt a crushing blow to the family. Decius' eldest son, Servius, was buried in rubble during the first half of the battle when a section of a wall was blown apart by a particularly powerful exploding charm. His daughter Octavia who was only 19 years old, having come to her father's side right after her graduation, was killed in the second half of the battle duelling a young George Vikander and the patriarch himself was badly wounded when he, blinded by rage, attempted to disengage the wizard he'd been fighting to charge Vikander down, only to be hit in the back multiple times. His youngest son, Consus IV, had been escorted out of the castle with the rest of Slytherin house before the battle and was unable to join the fight. Half a dozen members of the extended family also fought in the battle, one being struck by a killing curse and the other four eventually being incapacitated or surrendering after Voldemort's death. Following their defeat, Servius was found alive but badly maimed beneath the rubble, having lost an eye, had his foot crushed and three of his fingers so badly mangled that not even magic could fully heal them. Decius would fully recover from his injuries, but he would do so in a cell in Azkaban, where he would be condemned to spend the rest of his life. Consus was allowed to take his sister's body back to their mother to be buried in the family mausoleum back at Dechants manor. Aftermath In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Dechants family was shunned and hounded by the media even as they mourned their dead. Articles were published about both their involvement with the Death Eaters AND their previously forgotten support of Grindelwald in the global wizarding war. Consus was to be the new Lord of the manor, but he still had another year of school left to complete and his mother was too lost in her grief to lead the house while he was away, thus one of his cousins was brought in from France to do the job while he was away. Buckling under public pressure, his cousin Oppius did to Decius, Servius and Octavia what his ancestors had done to Camillus in the 16th century, publically denouncing them all and burning them from the family tapestry. This seemed to please the public and the family was gradually allowed to go back to conducting their business in peace, but when Consus learned of it after his graduation his anger could only have been matched by that of his ancestors Considia and Drusus. Upon returning to the manor, he brutally assaulted Oppius with what many who overheard the incident claimed could only be the cruciatus curse, judging by the screaming. Once he was done, he cast Oppius out of the manor and sent him back to France, warning him never to return under pain of death. Consus then took his rightful position as head of the house and quietly had his father and siblings sown back into the tapestry. Modern Times Consus has now been head of the house for 27 years. He has proven himself to be a highly capable and industrious leader, having restored all the wealth that was lost over a 100 years of war in just 15 and establishing a powerful network of allies and business partners in eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Furthermore, he has had 3 children of his own with his Mordushku bride, Lynette; 3 daughters, the oldest of whom he named after his beloved sister, Octavia, and the other two a pair of twins they named Aelia and Tatiana. People still whisper of the Dechants Family's Pure-blood supremacist leanings and unlawful conduct, but the times when smart men did it to their faces have long since passed. Some even claim the family is stronger than ever, but Consus remains restless, constantly seeking more power. To what end, one can only guess. Recent events On the 10th of July 2026, Decius Alexandre Dechants died in Azkaban after a short battle with the Dragon Pox at the age of 107. He was said to have been too weak to fight the illness thanks to his poor condition after 28 years of imprisonment, though others suspect he was quietly denied treatment by some of the veteran aurors guarding the prison. At great expense, his body was saved from being buried at the prison and brought back to Oxfordshire to be laid to rest in the family mausoleum. Characteristics The Dechants Family has been known to brag incessantly about their powerful genes; Reasonable, perhaps, for a family who can look back at nearly 700 year old paintings of their founder and still see a clear family resemblance. The Dechants look has been known to pass down through both the male and female line so often that even families who have historically intermarried with the Dechants', such as the Crawfords, have come to resemble them over time. The typical Dechants will have straight platinum blonde hair, celtic green eyes, sharp faces with high cheekbones and fair white skin. Conventionally beautiful in almost every way, the Dechants' only fall short in one category - that being their actual shortness, with the average Dechants man standing below 5'8" and the average woman ending up at around 5'1". The Dechants Manor The Dechants' ancestral family home in Oxfordshire England is the primary seat of the Family's power and the home of the patriarch and his family. The manor is located in a wooded area just north of the river Thames, 8 miles outside of Oxford. Approaching the walls is said to be a foreboding experience as one passes through the singed old ruins of the nameless logging village Considia and Drusus Dechants razed to avenge their daughter in the 15th century on the way up to the gates. The Manor itself almost looks like a castle from the outside, with large stone walls and an enchanted gate that only opens when the correct password is given keeping out any and all undesirables that might seek to enter. Those who get past the gate are met with a long, beautifully landscaped driveway leading up to the large, formidable marble house that the family resides in. On the right side of the building is another, smaller dome-shaped building which holds the entrance to the underground Dechants Mausoleum where the family buries their dead. The forest behind the manor is large and dense. Muggles who believe in such things have declared the woods to be haunted, as people have been known to go missing there in the past, while others blame more natural things for the woods being dangerous. Regardless of what they believe, all but the most daring and stupid give them a wide berth. Personnel The Dechants family employs a constantly shifting roster of servants, caretakers and other miscellaneous workers to take care of the day to day maintenance of the manor, but they also keep a handful of permanent fixtures that have managed to earn the family's trust around. Pocket the Elf Pocket is a female house elf sworn to serve the Dechants family. She is fiercely loyal to her masters who seem to treat her courteously. Pocket wears clothes made out of an old red pillowcase. Reece Combwell Reece is an elderly half-blood wizard and a childhood friend of Decius Dechants. Reece attended Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the same time as Decius and was sorted into Slytherin house. Reece was deeply impressed with Decius' magical talent and family wealth and so he sought to befriend him, something he accomplished mostly by doing whatever Decius told him to do. Reece became a lifelong friend and lackey to Decius, serving as his right hand man and bodyguard. Reece escaped conviction after the second wizarding war, having never earned the dark mark and being prevented from fighting in the battle of Hogwarts when his wife who later died under dubious circumstances hid his wand in an attempt to keep him out of harm's way. In present times, Reece is a miserable old man who drinks heavily. He serves Decius' son, Consus, by maintaining the family mausoleum and he inhabits the small dome-shaped building above it. He has been noted for taking extra good care of the grave of Decius' deceased daughter, Octavia, and more recently the grave of Decius himself. Amatia Colette Dechants Amatia Dechants died over 400 years ago, yet even after she had already been killed she was still too afraid to pass on. Amatia haunts her old home and occasionally the ruins of the village she died in as a ghost, still hoping to explore. Death has not made her any less shy or timid, however, and so she rarely bothers anybody and visitors are unlikely to see her at all if she can help it. Category:Families